Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published
reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Guyana.htm
Guyana is a source
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor … Women and girls are lured
with offers of well-paying jobs, and are subsequently exploited and
controlled through threats, withholding of pay or insufficient pay, and
physical violence. In coastal areas, traffickers promise rural women and girls jobs as domestic servants, then coerce them into
working in shops or homes for little or no pay, or sell them to brothels.
Many trafficking victims along the coast are Amerindian teenagers, targeted
by traffickers because of poor education and job prospects in their home
regions. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking
in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims Help & Shelter (NGO) ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Trafficking in Persons: USAID’s Response [PDF] United States
International Development Agency USAID, March 2006 pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACH052.pdf [accessed 15 August
2012] www.northeastern.edu/humantrafficking/wp-content/uploads/Trafficking_in_Persons_USAIDS_Response.pdf [accessed 15 August
2012] – (SLOW LOADING) [page 25] GUYANA: SHELTER FOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS, TRAINING POLICE AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS, AND RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS - Much of the trafficking in Guyana involves AmerIndian girls and takes place from hinterland communities to transportation and commercial nodes in coastal and hinterland areas for prostitution and involuntary domestic servitude. Girls are duped into prostitution with promises of employment as waitresses and bar attendants at coastal establishments and in gold and diamond mining areas; young men are exploited under forced labor conditions in timber camps. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Guyana U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/guyana/
[accessed 8 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Country experts
reported that forced and compulsory labor occurred in the gold-mining, agriculture,
and forestry sectors, as well as domestic servitude. Children were
particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, including forced labor (see
section 7.c.). PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor
occurred and was most prevalent in farming, fishing, bars and restaurants,
domestic work, and street vending. Small numbers of children also performed
hazardous work in the construction, logging, farming, and mining industries.
The government reported that incidences of the worst forms of child labor
occurred, mainly in gold mining, prostitution (see section 6), and forced
labor activities, including domestic servitude. According to local NGOs,
children who worked in gold mines operated dangerous mining equipment and
were exposed to hazardous chemicals, including mercury. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/guyana/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 28 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Legal protections
against exploitative working conditions are not enforced consistently. Those
working in the informal sector and extractive industries in the country’s
interior are particularly vulnerable to abuses. The US State
Department detailed Guyana’s continued efforts to address human trafficking
in 2019, citing increased funding of victim assistance, training of
officials, and the establishment of an antitrafficking
unit in the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. However, victims who are
men, children, or foreign nationals do not receive adequate support outside
Georgetown, and screening procedures for foreign victims are not
standardized. The number of victims from Venezuela has risen sharply in
recent years. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 17 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 28 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 489] Children in Guyana,
including girls as young as age 12, are involved in commercial sexual
exploitation in Georgetown and the country’s interior. There are reports of
young girls being subjected to commercial sexual exploitation in mining
communities as a result of human trafficking. (2; 12; 7; 9) Children are
engaged in informal, small scale mining in which they wash gold, operate
dangerous machinery, and are exposed to hazardous chemicals. (7; 9). Human Trafficking
Concerns in the Commonwealth Caribbean: the 2009 U.S. State Department
Trafficking in Persons Report in focus [PDF] Commonwealth Human
Rights Initiative (CHRI) www.humanrightsinitiative.org/london/hr_in_caribbean/human_trafficking_in_the_caribbean_june_2009.pdf [accessed 8 February
2011] 4. It is concerning
that Guyana has been placed on Tier 2 of the Watch List for a third consecutive
year. The evidence presented shows a persistent failing to provide evidence
of increasing efforts to combat trafficking, particularly in the area of law
enforcement actions against trafficking offenders. Although, the government
of Guyana has increased support for victims of trafficking its enforcement
remains poor. Guyana has yet to
prosecute any trafficking offenders under its 2005 anti-trafficking law. 5. Guyana is a
source, transit, and destination country for people (including children) trafficked
for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. According to the
TIP Report official reporting of human trafficking is limited; the majority
of trafficking appears to take place in remote mining camps where Amerindian
girls are trafficked to brothels near the camps and to coastal areas for
sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. Also, young Amerindian men are
exploited for forced labour. Other countries trafficking reports point to the
trafficking of Guyanese women and girls for sexual exploitation to neighbouring countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and
Tobago, Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela. Reports also indicate that Guyanese
men and boys are subject to labour exploitation in construction and
agriculture in these same countries. Trafficking victims from Suriname,
Brazil, and Venezuela transit Guyana en route to Caribbean destinations. 6. According to the
TIP Report, the Government of Guyana does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; furthermore the report has
found cases of official complicity in human trafficking. David Gollust, Voice of At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5
September 2011] He said several countries
listed in the bottom category last year, including Government
Information Agency www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b070306.html [access date
unavailable] [scroll down] Agence France-Presse AFP, www.caribbeannewsnow.com/caribnet/2004/06/17/unfair.htm [accessed 8 February
2011] Shadick said Guyanese
police and other authorities have been raiding mining camps and other areas
to rescue mainly indigenous women from prostitution, cheap and forced labour,
as well as prosecuting offenders under existing laws. Moving Up The Tiers refugeesunleashed.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17816 [accessed 15 July
2013] [scroll down] With the release of
the report the government was quick to counter that it had been addressing
the problem in spite of the daunting difficulties the State Department report
recognized. There is no
evidence that trafficking in persons here is in any way near the proportions
that it is elsewhere in the world but steps must be taken to root out the
practice wherever it has sprung up in Guyana. He added that once
it has been recognised that the government has
adopted measures that have been successfully implemented and create the
requisite environment to deal with trafficking in persons, a reclassification
“would be in order.” Four Nations Move
Against Trafficking in Response to Distributed by the
Bureau of International Information Programs, iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2004/09/20040910174056cmretrop0.6162226.html#axzz3Ceikh97X [accessed 8 February
2011] James Morrison, The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5
September 2011] "The initial
reaction was one of shock," said Mr. Ishmael, the most senior Latin
American or Caribbean envoy in The ambassador
noted that Guyana's minister of human services and social security, Bibi Shadick, complained that Washington failed to recognize
the government's efforts to draw international attention to human trafficking
in forums such as the Organization of American States and the Inter-American
Commission of Women. "Minister Shadick has personally plunged herself into a countrywide
campaign to investigate the issue and to educate various communities in the
remote interior of the country of problems associated with human
trafficking," Mr. Ishmael said.
"This is very commendable since it is very unusual for a Cabinet
minister in the Latin America and Caribbean region, or anywhere else, to be
involved so directly in trying to stamp out a social scourge." Guyana determined
to combat TIP www.landofsixpeoples.com/news402/nc406206.htm [accessed 8 February
2011] The Government is
concerned about the increasing incidence of Trafficking in Persons that has
been gripping the country. But it has not been silent on the issue. In fact, it has adopted a proactive
approach to effectively deal with the problem, according to Minister of Human
Services and Social Security Bibi Shadick. “We have been putting so much effort into
this problem from the time we understood what it is,” she said. She added that her Ministry’s Departments
such as the Probation and Family Welfare and Labour Departments were always
dealing with many TIP issues such as sexual exploitation. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 30 January 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/guyana2004.html [accessed 8 February
2011] [49] The Committee
expresses its concern at the increasing prevalence of child labour in the State party. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House Country
Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/guyana/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 28 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? 2 / 4 Despite significant
progress in recent years, disparities in opportunity continue to exist along
geographical, racial, and gender lines. The US State
Department has praised improved government efforts to tackle human
trafficking, citing increased prosecutions and convictions, although services
and shelters outside the capital, and for children and male victims, are
limited. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61730.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The country was a source and destination for trafficked women and children,
although most trafficking in persons occurred internally. Trafficking
reportedly took place in the interior, where there was little government
oversight and law enforcement was lacking. Most trafficking originated in impoverished
Amerindian communities, although some victims came from the larger coastal
cities. Some women trafficked into the country came from the northern regions
of neighboring The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/guyana.htm [accessed 8 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The Guyana Human Rights Association reported that
there were cases where girls as young as 11 are recruited to work in bars and
restaurants as prostitutes. Children
are also engaged in prostitution in ports, gold mining areas, and the capital
city of All
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